'Extras': Tube Talk Gold

It seems crazy now that we've seen him take down celebrities at the Golden Globes, smooch Jennifer Garner and Téa Leoni in Hollywood films and embark on sell-out stand-up tours, but there was a time when Ricky Gervais was being painted as a one-hit wonder.

But when the show grew to become a massive hit - the still spectacular final episodes winning coveted slots in the BBC One Christmas schedule - it was all change. Suddenly all eyes were on Gervais and his comedy partner Stephen Merchant and the pressure was on for them to produce a follow-up worthy of standing shoulder-to-shoulder with The Office.

While The Office began life as a mini-pilot cobbled together on a training course, Gervais and Merchant now had the top brass at the BBC breathing down their necks. It would have been so easy for them to crack. Instead they came up with Extras.

Extras: Originally broadcast from July 21, 2005 to December 27, 2007

It seems that by this point Gervais and Merchant had already recognized The Office as an untouchable comedy gem with an enduring legacy, because Extras differed to its predecessor so greatly.

The source of the show's comedy - all awkwardness, all the time - was pretty much the same as The Office, but the mockumentary style went out in favor of a more traditional sitcom look and the crippling realism of Wernham Hogg was replaced by cameos from Hollywood stars (more on those later).

At the time Extras first aired there were a few grumbles that maybe the changes were too drastic. We'll admit it was a bit off-putting to have Gervais playing hopeless background performer Andy Millman, a character who shuffles around pulling faces and begging for just one line of dialog, when in real life he was being hailed as a modern comedy great.

Andy is less immediately engaging than David Brent as well, though to be fair that's how Gervais and Merchant designed him (and they probably knew like the rest of us they'd never better that career-making character anyway). While Brent pretty much carries The Office, for most of the time in Extras Gervais is the straight man.

Maggie was very much the heart of Extras - unconditionally kind and completely free of malice, yet constantly getting in trouble due to her naivety, lack of internal censor and ineptitude in social situations. It's also pretty much impossible to dislike Maggie - I've certainly never heard an Extras fan make a single complaint about her. Even on the occasions when she ruins things for Andy with her runaway mouth, you still want to wrap her up in cotton wool. She's a woman-child with frazzled hair and a daft hat, and she barely catches a break the entire series, but Jensen plays her with optimism and a happy-go-lucky attitude that's almost inspiring.

Maggie's completely platonic bond with Andy is also pretty intriguing. There's not a hint of romance between them, but Gervais and Merchant have proved that taking away the 'will they/won't they' factor from a leading pair doesn't make them any less engaging. Sadly, very few producers and writers have taken on board their discovery of in-jokes being just as interesting as almost-kisses.

And as for Merchant, well if The Office was the making of Gervais, then Extras was his time to shine. Having only made a brief - but memorable - cameo in The Office as The Ogg Monster, Merchant was a complete revelation as Andy's beyond-useless agent.

The relationship between Gervais's protagonist and Darren Lamb is one that only exists out of loyalty, as he frequently dismisses Andy as a lost cause due to his weight and appearance, sours negotiations with cringeworthy faux pas and masturbates over pens. Darren has even reduced the once great 'Barry from EastEnders' to his mere man servant - a genius move from Gervais and Merchant that transformed the real-life Shaun Williamson into a kind of cult hero.

It's the celebrity cameos though (told you we'd get to them) that really made Extras something unique. Ben Stiller, Daniel Radcliffe, Samuel L Jackson, Orlando Bloom, Stephen Fry, Chris Martin, Sir Ian McKellen, George Michael and Robert De Niro are just some of the big names who gladly made arses out of themselves for this little BBC sitcom - a mind blowing thought really.

Pretty much every cameo is a hit, but among the more memorable moments are Kate Winslet's now legendary declaration that starring in a Holocaust film will win you an Oscar (apparently proved true when she bagged an award for The Reader in 2009), TV hardman Ross Kemp outing himself as a giant softie living in fear of Vinnie Jones and mocked by the SAS (or Super Army Soldiers) and David Bowie serenading Andy with the song 'Little Fat Man'.

Then there's Ronnie Corbett getting caught taking coke in the BAFTA toilets, Patrick Stewart pitching a movie where he uses his Magneto powers to unclothe women ("But I've seen everything") and, of course, the classic Les Dennis episode that begins with the Family Fortunes star descending into depression after being cheated on by an Amanda Holden stand-in and ends with him pulling out his decades-old Mavis from Corrie during a one-night-stand.

Every single famous face seemed like they were having a whale of a time as well, enjoying the opportunity to subvert their traditional public personas into something different, darker and twisted. Gervais and Merchant specialise in squeezing humor from deeply flawed characters, and the celebrities received no special treatment in that respect.

Extras was not all about poking fun at the stars though. The premise allowed for a rich analysis of celebrity culture - series one dealt with the characters' desperation for fame, while series two saw Andy become disillusioned with stardom as his sitcom When The Whistle Blows got turned into irredeemable trash by meddling producers.

The Christmas special looked at the addictive and corruptive qualities of notoriety, the plot seeing Andy getting too preoccupied with trying to keep his career afloat to realize that Maggie is living in squalor. In the final moments, all the themes covered throughout the series are pulled together into one impassioned essay warning about the dangers of celebrity culture that Andy broadcasts from inside the Celebrity Big Brother house. It's a beautiful moment and makes for a fitting, thought-provoking curtain call.

Since it started off life being Gervais's difficult second album, Extras was always going to be - and will always be - in The Office's shadow. Because of that, it's almost been forgotten about in a strange way. If you haven't seen it before - or haven't seen it in a while - make sure you check it out, if only to experience Kate Winslet's phone sex tips.

Are you a fan of Extras and Ricky Gervais? Does it compete with The Office? Leave your comments below!